The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for resorting piece goods assortments. The invention will be described with reference to assortments of packaging units and in particular of packaging units for beverage containers. It is also pointed out that the scope of application of the present invention is not limited to such packaging units. Various apparatuses for transporting and sorting or palletising packaging units are known from the prior art. For instance, WO 2004/039705 A1 describes a method and an apparatus for arranging and orienting packages. Therein, packages are supplied and combined into a predefined assortment.
EP 1 046 598 A1 describes an apparatus for making palletisable layers of packaging units. In this apparatus, too, rows of packaging units are supplied and are combined to form regular packaging unit assortments.
EP 213 305 describes an apparatus for unloading and loading pallets. In this apparatus, firstly pallets holding packaging units are unloaded, then rows of packaging units are supplied to a plurality of storage modules and are redistributed with the aid of these storage modules, which are arranged parallel to one another, so that the assortment on the pallets can be changed. However, as mentioned, it is necessary in this procedure to provide a plurality of storage units arranged parallel to one another, among which the packaging units are firstly distributed in order subsequently to be able to be rearranged in a different assortment.